Bye Bye, Chris

For a number of years Chris Christie was considered one of the Republican Party’s rising stars, and after the 2012 election he even seemed poised to be the GOP’s frontrunner for the presidential bid. He won over voters with moderate politics and an unfiltered, at times even combative persona (“Man up and say I’m fat.”) that felt genuine in a no-nonsense way that may have been a smoke signal on our country’s trek toward the landscape of political “real talk” that Trump and Sanders have dominated in their campaigns. Along the way, however, Christie got stuck in a bit of a jam (on a certain bridge, to be specific), and couldn’t seem to turn the car around before he was fully embroiled in the honking gridlock of public opinion (aka Twitter). When withdrawing his presidential bid this week, Christie said, “I leave the race without an ounce of regret,” which is great to know, but made us want to remember the pit stops of the tumbleweed star that was Chris Christie. It also doesn’t hurt to remember his opinion on how a certain “Italian American” reality cast came to occupy the Shore of the Garden State: “They parachuted those losers into New Jersey.”

For a number of years Chris Christie was considered one of the Republican Party’s rising stars, and after the 2012 election he even seemed poised to be the GOP’s frontrunner for the presidential bid. He won over voters with moderate politics and an unfiltered, at times even combative persona...